DESCRIPTION: Funds are requested for partial reimbursement of travel and per diem expenses of speakers at an American Chemical Society (ACS) symposium on Metal-Carboxylate Proteins and Synthetic Models to be held at the national ACS meeting in Anaheim, CA, April 2-7, 1995. The symposium, as presently conceived, will consist of four half-day sessions over two days with five (or six) speakers per session. A fifth half-day introductory tutorial session may be added to the beginning of the symposium. The past few years have seen explosive growth in structural and mechanistic insights into non- heme metalloproteins, which often contain carboxylate ligands to iron, nickel, zinc, cobalt and probably chromium ions. Furthermore, carboxylate ligands participate in iron deposition in ferritin, which contains a polyiron-oxo aggregate. The discovery and characterization of these proteins has been accomplished by concerted efforts in several laboratories to mimic the structure and function of these metalloprotein sites with synthetic metal-carboxylate complexes. These efforts have led to a variety of novel metal-carboxylate complexes and clusters. Previous symposia focusing on the title category of proteins have not been held. Therefore, one goal of this symposium is to bring together synthetic inorganic chemists, structural biologists, spectroscopists and enzymologists. The list of speakers consists of a representative cross- section of established, younger, male, female, foreign and domestic scientists. The mix should facilitate the free exchange of ideas and allow for expression of novel viewpoints. A majority of the proposed speakers have already accepted invitations. A national ACS meeting typically attracts more than 10,000 attendees from a variety of chemical disciplines, and thus, proves an ideal forum for a bio-inorganic symposium. The ACS has many years of experience in conducting national meetings with symposia and will arrange for meeting rooms, provide all audio-visual aids, and print and distribute programs and abstracts. The metalloproteins to be discussed at this symposium are relevant to such medically related processes as glucose tolerance (glucose tolerance factor), iron deficiency and overload (ferritin), amino acid and protein catabolism (arginase and dimetal peptidases), lipid oxidation (lipoxygenase), prevention of tissue damage by oxygen-generated free radicals (superoxide dismutase) and bone resorption (acid phosphatases). Metallocarboxylate complexes also occur at the active sites of phosphodiesterases, such as the ribonuclease H domain of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase and are used in magnetic resonance imaging.